The lineage is pretty clear, especially if you're looking at the early DOS versions and the computers it ran on. DOS basically added a few things, and the hardware progressed a lot.
But in the Turbo Pascal 3 era, the differences weren't that high.
"Big" things were:
- no sub-directories
- no relocatable executables (ie. only .COM, no .EXE)
- no common, advanced graphic standard
So if you're running WordStar or TP3 in black-and-white text mode, you might not be able to tell the difference.
If you're thinking of color text modes (TP 5.5, QBASIC, Word 5) or VGA/EGA games when "DOS" is mentioned, then that's the era beyond that.
But in the Turbo Pascal 3 era, the differences weren't that high.
"Big" things were:
- no sub-directories
- no relocatable executables (ie. only .COM, no .EXE)
- no common, advanced graphic standard
So if you're running WordStar or TP3 in black-and-white text mode, you might not be able to tell the difference.
If you're thinking of color text modes (TP 5.5, QBASIC, Word 5) or VGA/EGA games when "DOS" is mentioned, then that's the era beyond that.